Gearbox gears up for next week's launch of Aliens: Colonial Marines with a new extended cut version of the contact trailer for the first-person shooter. Word is: "Underlined with a classical piece of cinematic music by Golden Globe nominated composer Clint Mansell, the trailer takes viewers on a vertical ride through the USS Sulaco with US Colonial Marines fighting for their lives against an incoming wave of Xenomorphs."

Redmask wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:22:The reason why this game doesn't work is the developers want to make a FPS when that is anathema to what worked in the films. The Aliens were deadly because the humans were at a disadvantage and victim of their own hubris and of greed in general. To make a good Alien game you have to be at a real disadvantage.

In Alien they were trapped on a spaceship where even wounding the alien could literally kill everyone onboard, with no weapons but makeshift flamethrowers and prods, and with the smartest person onboard dedicated to killing them. In Aliens they were crippled (they had to use shotguns and flamethrowers), then they lost all their equipment and had to hole up in enemy territory. In Alien 3 they were on a prison planet with no weapons.

Aliens games want to go "Yo, dude, check it out, you've got a smart gun you can fire with impunity" while ignoring that the marine's firepower being castrated was essential to the atmosphere.

And I said textures, not character models. The texture work is very spotty and this isn't a surprise considering they reused assets from a game initially cancelled in 2001. It might improve as the game goes on and more of Gearbox's work shows.

Ill tell you want Redmask, go find the funding to make your own game, then build it and present it. lets see if you can do a better job since you seem to be an expert.

Redmask hasn't been more right in any other of his posts than this one. I can't agree more with him and it's basically what I've been saying a long time but in a less articulate fashion (I called in Alien zerging, Serious Sam style.. and why that doesn't work).

You, Dark... well, I have little to say to you. You're talking out of your ass so bad, I have to type with one hand because the other is squeezing my nose. You say we don't know what we're talking about because we say the game will suck, while you claim it won't. What kinda source do you have that we don't apart from the try at the E3? Seriously, I wanna know ye lil' zealot.

I stand my ground and say again: Mark my words, this game will suck. It's coming from a gamer with a good intuition regarding game expectations.

I take it back, this looks WAY worse than I thought initially. The texture work looks like early first wave console games. The Aliens are a joke, it feels like a Call of Duty mod or something. I normally try to look on the bright side of things but this just looks terrible. 20 seconds in and a ragdoll gets stuck in the level geometry, horrible VA, consolized gameplay

netnerd85 wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 12:20:You just said DNF was rushed, who's stupid?

Gearbox bought DNF and brought it to market quickly, Randy even admitted this in an interview. Their focus was on bringing it to market as fast as possible and then starting work on their own game at some point.

Mad Max RW wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:48:Well, there are full playthroughs of the game online now and it sucks. There's so many reasons big and small it adds up to a third rate DNF style rush job. You'd have to be stupid not to see how this will end. But you aren't stupid, are you?

Well, there are full playthroughs of the game online now and it sucks. There's so many reasons big and small it adds up to a third rate DNF style rush job. You'd have to be stupid not to see how this will end. But you aren't stupid, are you?

That said, Gearbox wasn't kidding when they promised you would respect Alien 3 a bit more after witnessing A:CM. Much like how people learned to respect Alien 3 after the cartoonish Alien Resurrection.

So I guess we can pack it up and wait another ten years before somebody attempts to revive the license once more. Thank you Sega and Gearbox for the laughs. Hopefully you don't have to layoff too many people.

Darks wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:28:Ill tell you want Redmask, go find the funding to make your own game, then build it and present it. lets see if you can do a better job since you seem to be an expert.

No, I think I'll just tell you to grow the hell up and stop being a little baby. I love games, fucking love them, I just don't like all games and this happens to be one of them because it doesn't look very good. I wish it looked great because then I would get a fun game to play but I just don't see it. Sorry I don't like the game you have picked as a favorite but you need to stop taking it personally because that's fucking weird.

I didn't realize clicking on comments meant we were only allowed to post nice things about what Darks likes, did I misclick and this is really darkshappyland.com?

People forget that Aliens was a Vietnam allegory and that's part of why it worked so well. Brash, over-confident force arrogantly entering enemy territory, totally dependent on their technology to carry them through. That's really counter to a lot of videogame design where its all about player empowerment and self-insertion fantasy scenarios.

It doesn't take a genius to see how the successful Alien games have embraced one extreme or the other, you can't do both like it seems here.

Hey Beamer, How ya been?

Dude, itís pointless to try and argue or even convince these guys of anything. They all seem to have it in their heads that the game is shit and it wonít be worth a damn.

We're just talking about the game and the movies. Sorry you don't like what's being said but that's your problem.

Redmask wrote on Feb 8, 2013, 11:22:The reason why this game doesn't work is the developers want to make a FPS when that is anathema to what worked in the films. The Aliens were deadly because the humans were at a disadvantage and victim of their own hubris and of greed in general. To make a good Alien game you have to be at a real disadvantage.

In Alien they were trapped on a spaceship where even wounding the alien could literally kill everyone onboard, with no weapons but makeshift flamethrowers and prods, and with the smartest person onboard dedicated to killing them. In Aliens they were crippled (they had to use shotguns and flamethrowers), then they lost all their equipment and had to hole up in enemy territory. In Alien 3 they were on a prison planet with no weapons.

Aliens games want to go "Yo, dude, check it out, you've got a smart gun you can fire with impunity" while ignoring that the marine's firepower being castrated was essential to the atmosphere.

And I said textures, not character models. The texture work is very spotty and this isn't a surprise considering they reused assets from a game initially cancelled in 2001. It might improve as the game goes on and more of Gearbox's work shows.

Ill tell you want Redmask, go find the funding to make your own game, then build it and present it. lets see if you can do a better job since you seem to be an expert.

I take it back, this looks WAY worse than I thought initially. The texture work looks like early first wave console games. The Aliens are a joke, it feels like a Call of Duty mod or something. I normally try to look on the bright side of things but this just looks terrible. 20 seconds in and a ragdoll gets stuck in the level geometry, horrible VA, consolized gameplay

Those graphics look way better than people are making it out. Seriously, the character models look fine. Anyone saying it looks like a game from 2002, or even from the launch of the 360, does not remember what games looked like then.

And yeah, it's a bit annoying that the AI friendlies take about a billion shots to kill something, but trust me, it's more frustrating if they're as deadly as you are. This guy was killing most people in one burst (what difficulty is this?) And he was ALWAYS lagging behind his AI teammates. If they were more deadly, he wouldn't be killing anything. He'd just be watching the friendlies kill.

Which is why friendly AI almost never manages to be deadly - it becomes them playing instead of you. Given that no room had a huge amount of enemies, I think it was fine that they were killing ~15%. It bugged the crap out of me in Call of Duty, where you'd be fighting 100 guys and they'd kill 5, but here? If they were as deadly as this guy wanted he wouldn't have been playing a game.

The things he complains about seem fine to me. The thing he praises, the level design, seems problematic to me. Clear room, walk into next room, clear room, walk into next room, clear room, walk into next room. It's Doom 3 without closets.

Hey Beamer, How ya been?

Dude, itís pointless to try and argue or even convince these guys of anything. They all seem to have it in their heads that the game is shit and it wonít be worth a damn.

Thatís fine, Iím done trying to convince or even argue anymore with them. Itís their lose. I know I will enjoy the game and thatís all that really matters. Iím in this game for the Campaign Co-op with my friends.

I personally donít get how anyone thinks or can even comment that the graphics look dated. I donít, I think many here donít know the back ground on this game and how it was started about 5 years ago and how it almost didnít get made because of finance issues and Sega pouring all their money in the Aliens Vs. Predator.

I have personally played this game at E3, and I loved it. It was what I expected and have been wanting in an aliens Game for years. Coop with friends. And there was no better timeline to pick then the one from the second movie.

The reason why this game doesn't work is the developers want to make a FPS when that is anathema to what worked in the films. The Aliens were deadly because the humans were at a disadvantage and victim of their own hubris and of greed in general. To make a good Alien game you have to be at a real disadvantage.

In Alien they were trapped on a spaceship where even wounding the alien could literally kill everyone onboard, with no weapons but makeshift flamethrowers and prods, and with the smartest person onboard dedicated to killing them. In Aliens they were crippled (they had to use shotguns and flamethrowers), then they lost all their equipment and had to hole up in enemy territory. In Alien 3 they were on a prison planet with no weapons.

Aliens games want to go "Yo, dude, check it out, you've got a smart gun you can fire with impunity" while ignoring that the marine's firepower being castrated was essential to the atmosphere.

And I said textures, not character models. The texture work is very spotty and this isn't a surprise considering they reused assets from a game initially cancelled in 2001. It might improve as the game goes on and more of Gearbox's work shows.

I take it back, this looks WAY worse than I thought initially. The texture work looks like early first wave console games. The Aliens are a joke, it feels like a Call of Duty mod or something. I normally try to look on the bright side of things but this just looks terrible. 20 seconds in and a ragdoll gets stuck in the level geometry, horrible VA, consolized gameplay

Those graphics look way better than people are making it out. Seriously, the character models look fine. Anyone saying it looks like a game from 2002, or even from the launch of the 360, does not remember what games looked like then.

And yeah, it's a bit annoying that the AI friendlies take about a billion shots to kill something, but trust me, it's more frustrating if they're as deadly as you are. This guy was killing most people in one burst (what difficulty is this?) And he was ALWAYS lagging behind his AI teammates. If they were more deadly, he wouldn't be killing anything. He'd just be watching the friendlies kill.

Which is why friendly AI almost never manages to be deadly - it becomes them playing instead of you. Given that no room had a huge amount of enemies, I think it was fine that they were killing ~15%. It bugged the crap out of me in Call of Duty, where you'd be fighting 100 guys and they'd kill 5, but here? If they were as deadly as this guy wanted he wouldn't have been playing a game.

The things he complains about seem fine to me. The thing he praises, the level design, seems problematic to me. Clear room, walk into next room, clear room, walk into next room, clear room, walk into next room. It's Doom 3 without closets.

I take it back, this looks WAY worse than I thought initially. The texture work looks like early first wave console games. The Aliens are a joke, it feels like a Call of Duty mod or something. I normally try to look on the bright side of things but this just looks terrible. 20 seconds in and a ragdoll gets stuck in the level geometry, horrible VA, consolized gameplay

Wallshadows wrote on Feb 7, 2013, 21:31:I'm more worried about the voice acting and whether or not what we heard in the last trailer release is what we should expect in the game. If it happens to be the case, I'll likely mute sounds and just have Aliens play in the background even if the scenes don't match up.

I would suggest watching this IGN preview, thankfully the voice acting in those trailers isn't in the game.

I didn't know they had the actual actors from Aliens do the voices for the game, mostly for the multiplayer per-order bonus at gamestop. hopefully just a timed exclusive. That's pretty cool.

They've really bungled the marketing of this game.

Had a quick look at the IGN playthrough. The game looks good, great to hear the original actors are in it. The animations aren't that great, my only complaint about that so far. The graphics look good.

Wallshadows wrote on Feb 7, 2013, 21:31:I'm more worried about the voice acting and whether or not what we heard in the last trailer release is what we should expect in the game. If it happens to be the case, I'll likely mute sounds and just have Aliens play in the background even if the scenes don't match up.

I would suggest watching this IGN preview, thankfully the voice acting in those trailers isn't in the game.

Redmask wrote on Feb 7, 2013, 22:29:I just can't get excited about this game, I love the universe but it looks like a generic derivative of everything that came before it. I keep wanting them to convince me but every piece of media tells me to bargain bin this.

That's an excellent summary of where I'm at, too.

The videos that are out there really make me worry about the consolitis problem plauging games these days. The gun models are way to big and the FOV is shit.

Speaking of FOV, I'd be curious as to how much attention the PC version got. They went out of their way to point out what they did for BL2, but I've not seen it mentioned for Aliens.

Redmask wrote on Feb 7, 2013, 22:29:I just can't get excited about this game, I love the universe but it looks like a generic derivative of everything that came before it. I keep wanting them to convince me but every piece of media tells me to bargain bin this.

That's an excellent summary of where I'm at, too.

The videos that are out there really make me worry about the consolitis problem plauging games these days. The gun models are way to big and the FOV is shit.